"Once upon a time, two sisters depended on each other. The elder sister was cold-natured but exceptionally gifted, and her younger sister was equally talented, yet protected so well by her sister that she remained innocent, untouched by impurities."
"They lived together relying on one another, until one day, a so-called righteous man with an inherently evil nature appeared. He waved the banner of justice, painting them a picture of the future and claiming there was an opportunity to save the city."
Chen Guan turned midair, dodging a twisted spatial rift.
"The Yin family?"
He spat out those two words, sparing a moment to throw Baal some emotional validation.
"Smart."
Baal continued.
"Those people saw the young girl's spiritual talent, and the girl herself was willing to sacrifice for others. By the time Guan Jinyue realized what was happening, it was too late. Her sister's soul had become the array's eye beneath the tower, and all that remained in her body was a cold, hollow shell."
"As compensation, and due to her terrifying talent, Guan Jinyue received a lot—an admission spot in the Northern City, the sword in her hand, too many things she once dared not even dream of..."
"But geniuses are often obsessive. For Guan Jinyue, all she wanted was her sister."
"Two and a half years later, Guan Jinyue stormed a cult stronghold. Even though Lord Bael himself was enshrined there, she swung her sword without hesitation."
As he spoke, a faint, affected sobbing sound could be heard.
And afterward? The benevolent Lord Bael forgave past grievances, showed her the way, restored the girl's decaying body, and used his influence to have the demon clan prepare an ice coffin. From then on, her sister's body no longer decayed. With no more worries, Guan Jinyue offered Lord Bael a token of allegiance.
"Everything after that, you already know."
Baal didn't even bother pretending anymore, directly naming names.
"So she's here for revenge?"
"No."
Baal refuted that conclusion.
"She's here to take someone back. She wants to retrieve what remains of her sister's soul from beneath that tower. Even if it means destroying the entire city of Shanghai, she won't hesitate."
As Baal's voice faded, the silver figure ahead stopped.
The wind howled across the rooftop.
Guan Jinyue turned around.
Her hands were empty, bearing no weapon.
But the space around her twisted violently, with invisible blades seemingly slicing through the air.
Chen Guan stopped ten meters away.
"To get your sister back, you're willing to let this whole city be buried with her?"
Guan Jinyue's eyes were dead, showing no ripple of emotion.
"And you're any different?"
She had seen through what was in the coffin on his back—the same essence as what she kept preserved in the ice coffin in the Northern frontier.
Both of them had someone they cherished more than life itself.
The first time they met, she had seen through the coffin's contents with Baal's help, recognizing that the man before her was like herself—someone with a person more precious than life.
That was why she had felt a flicker of what little pity she had left.
Chen Guan did not deny it, and Guan Jinyue's lips curled into a mocking smile.
"When you reach where I am, you'll become just like me—maybe even crazier."
"As for now, I'll be going on ahead."
Guan Jinyue's smile was both charming and dangerous. She raised her hand, and space began to fold. Countless cracks took the form of shattered glass splinters, spinning behind her.
"Congratulations, you fell for it."
Before Chen Guan could steady himself on the rooftop, the silver figure before him began to dissolve.
Guan Jinyue's outline shattered into countless folded shards of light, scattering in entirely different directions.
She had never intended to fight here from the start.
Chen Guan reached out to grab the last fading image, but his fingers passed through it, touching nothing.
An Changqing's voice came through the phone, unusually urgent.
"Chen Guan, how is it over there?"
"She's gone."
"Gone? Where?"
An Changqing didn't even bother asking who she was now.
But Chen Guan had already fully grasped Guan Jinyue's intention.
"An Changqing, watch out..."
Before Chen Guan could finish, a clamor broke out from the other end.
Inside the revolving restaurant.
Hong Yuan and Long Ao had just returned from the rescue below. Both were covered in dust and bloodstains, but their spirits were still intact.
An Changqing stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, maintaining the communication. Su Yuehe was packing up her equipment.
Yin Chen stood alone by the meeting table, one hand resting on its surface as he scrolled through the latest messages from the Shanghai Association on his phone.
His uncle had been escorted to the safe zone downstairs. At this moment, only the five of them remained in the restaurant.
Long Ao tossed his coat onto a chair, letting out a heavy breath.
"The beasts below aren't too strong, but there are so many of them it's insane. The Association has already arrived, but they're barely holding the line."
Hong Yuan rested her battle axe on her shoulder. "But the rifts are still expanding. If we don't deal with the source, we'll never kill them all."
An Changqing lowered his earpiece, frowning at Su Yuehe.
"Yuehe, have you located the source of the rifts?"
Su Yuehe shook her head, pointing at the instruments beside her. The screen displayed a mess of garbled data.
"The spatial fluctuations are too intense. All detectors are being disrupted. I'm recalibrating."
Yin Chen interjected.
"There's no need to find the source."
Everyone looked at him.
Yin Chen turned his phone screen toward the group.
"A spatial tear of this scale must have one person maintaining it. Find that person and cut off the control, and all the rifts will close automatically."
An Changqing nodded in agreement.
"Chen Guan said he chased that person, but she got away. Her exact whereabouts are unknown."
Just then, An Changqing's phone rang out with Chen Guan's urgent voice.
— "An Changqing, watch out."
His reaction was already swift. His sword left its sheath in under 0.3 seconds.
But it wasn't fast enough.
A circle of transparent ripples silently spread out behind Yin Chen.
At the center of the ripples, a pale, slender hand materialized without a sound, gently resting on Yin Chen's right shoulder.
In that instant, Yin Chen's entire body froze.
His pupils dilated sharply, because he could clearly feel that his meridians had been locked, like a valve had been shut off—all energy flow stopped the moment that hand touched his shoulder.
He tried to activate his abilities, but not a trace of cold air could be condensed.
A figure stepped out of the ripples completely, standing half a step behind Yin Chen.
Silver hair, black eyes.
Guan Jinyue.
"You..."
Yin Chen turned his head, recognizing that face.
Guan Jinyue didn't look at him. Her gaze swept across everyone in the restaurant, finally stopping on An Changqing, who already had his sword drawn.
"Don't move."
She said.
An Changqing's sword was already aimed at Guan Jinyue, faint starlight flickering along the blade.
"Let him go."
There was nothing superfluous in Guan Jinyue's eyes. Surrounded by four people, she stood calmly—a composure completely out of place in such a scene.
With Chen Guan, that unpredictable variable, gone, no one could stop her now.
Yin Chen gritted his teeth, attempting to break her control with his spiritual power.
The moment his spiritual power surged out of his body, it was silently swallowed by some invisible barrier around him.
Nothing remained.
Yin Chen's face went completely pale.
"My spiritual power..."
"Save it."
Guan Jinyue finally lowered his head to look at him.
"Within the scope I've locked onto, your ability is no different from an ordinary person's."
An Changqing did not hesitate any longer.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
